


The Invention of Sunset

by aretia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 19:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15079604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Lotor and Allura are the newly chosen Guardians of Night and Day. They are desperate to find a way to be together, even in a world that tells them that light and darkness cannot coexist.





	The Invention of Sunset

**Author's Note:**

> For Lotura week day 4: Equilibrium (also day 2 Fairy tale AU/day 3 Mythology AU, I was late, but it works for all the days so yay)
> 
> idk what this is. It's adapted from some mythology I made up for a story when I was about 13... and I shoved Lotura into it, I hope it makes sense.

“Stay away from him!” Allura screamed. She felt Hira’s hands close around her arms, but before she had a chance to pull Allura away from Lotor, Allura summoned a force field, tossing Hira back against the wall. Inside the white dome of light, Allura leaned over Lotor’s limp, trembling frame. She pulled his head into her lap, stroking his hair while he convulsed. She didn’t even know he was sick until now, and she didn’t understand what was wrong with him. All she wanted to do was keep him close.

“Allura! This is madness! It’s almost dawn, you need to get out of there,” Hira continued, banging her palms against the force field in vain. Hira was Lotor’s head advisor, and Allura couldn’t stand her. She was the one who had kept her and Lotor apart for weeks, forcing them to live in separate rooms in opposite sides of the castle. 

Since Allura was the Guardian of the Day and Lotor was the Guardian of the Night, Allura wasn’t even allowed to see him, because she had to control the movement of the sun across the sky all day. And when the day turned into night, the sun immediately disappeared and the sky turned black. There was no overlap between the two. When Lotor was awake, Allura inevitably passed out from exhaustion, and she always woke up the next morning in her isolated room.

This morning, she had risen early to seek out Lotor, sneaking around the guards and wandering through the halls of the castle. She found him in a central corridor, apparently doing the same thing, but in far worse condition than she was. As soon as she had come close enough to touch him, he had collapsed. Allura had called for help, not realizing that the only people who could help them were the ones who wanted to separate them.

She used the force field to sear Hira’s palms, and cracked a wry smirk when she saw her back away, flapping her hands and blowing on them, and smelled the faint scent of burnt flesh.

“What the quiznak is going on here?” yelled another voice as footsteps dashed down the stairs into the corridor. That was Coran, Allura’s personal advisor, whom she liked significantly more than Hira. He actually listened to her, and looked the other way when she wanted to sneak out and look for Lotor instead of resting for her duties.

“What is going on is I caught both of our charges having a forbidden rendezvous,” Hira said coldly. “I have done everything I can to keep them focused on their duties and keep them from being a danger to each other. But you have to do your part too, Coran.”

“Lotor’s sick! Please help him!” Allura called out, still leaving the force field up even though she felt slightly safer with Coran there. What did Hira mean, that she could be a danger to Lotor?

“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be near him!” Hira shot back. Allura flinched at her harsh words. “Your powers are made of light and his are made of darkness. They counteract each other, they cannot coexist! You’re weakening him!”

Allura’s hand hovered over Lotor’s body in hesitation. She couldn’t accept that she was the one who had done this to him, who had caused him this pain. 

“Wait. Maybe we’ve been looking at this wrong all along,” Coran suggested. 

“Not this again,” Hira cut him off. 

“Hear me out,” Coran insisted, with a weary tone, like he was explaining something obvious for the thousandth time to a petulant child. “Allura and Lotor clearly want to be near each other. What if it’s because it strengthens their powers? You’ve kept them isolated for weeks. Maybe that’s why Lotor is sick. He needs her to recharge his strength.”

“Preposterous,” Hira scoffed. “You were there too. You remember what happened. Three generations of Guardians in the past century, meant to be legendary beings who are near immortal, except every time they fell in love with each other and drained each other’s powers until they withered away. Do you want to live under gray skies again until the next pair of Guardians is born?!” 

At first, Allura’s body didn’t know how to react to that revelation and she just froze. Then, she grit her teeth and snarled with rage. There had been other Guardians before them, who had _died_ from being near each other, and Hira had known this all along and hadn’t thought to tell her?!

“Maybe this time will be different,” Coran said, and he whispered something in Hira’s ear.

Hira looked affronted. “They aren’t ready for that,” she said.

Allura ceased to pay attention to their conversation when Lotor groaned and nuzzled his head against her stomach.

“Lotor! Are you awake?” Allura whispered, hoping not to attract the attention of the advisors.

“Nngh…” Lotor groaned, his hand clutching at her robes. His face was pinched with pain. She lay down beside him and pulled him into her arms, and his tense muscles seemed to relax slightly. 

Maintaining the force field was exhausting. Lying there beside him, she began to doze off… and was startled when she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder again. “No!” she cried out, holding Lotor protectively, even though there was nothing she could do now that she’d lost the force field. No matter what, she wouldn’t let anyone take her away from Lotor, even if that meant that she would die by his side.

“It’s okay. I’m going to help you and Lotor,” Coran assured her. Hira was standing off to the side, frowning with her arms folded. 

Allura trusted him, and she didn’t have the strength to argue. She let her eyes slip closed again, only barely conscious of what was going on.

Two of the royal guards, Kolivan and Antok, carried Lotor and Allura up the stairs, following Coran. The stairway ended at a door that Allura had never seen before even when she explored the castle. Coran slipped a key inside the lock and turned it, his hands shaking with anticipation, and let out a soft reverent gasp when the door swung open.

Inside was a bedroom with wide glass windows and an expansive balcony. In the center of the room was a gold four-poster bed ornately carved with sun and moon images. The guards lay Lotor and Allura down on the soft sheets, and then left the two of them alone in the room. She snuggled up to him again, and was relieved to find that he was no longer spasming, but sleeping peacefully. Finally feeling safe, she let herself rest too.

She and Lotor woke after a long sleep to the sound of Hira’s astonished scream. 

“What did I tell you?” Coran said smugly. “Their bond was strong enough to unlock the Sunset Room. This is proof that their powers complement each other instead of counteracting each other.”

Allura’s eyes fluttered open as she drowsily wondered what they were talking about. The moment she opened her eyes, all she could see was Lotor, looking at her with eyes full of adoration, and not a trace of pain or illness. Allura smiled back at him. 

Then, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked out the window. Lotor did the same, and they both gasped. The sky outside was neither day nor night, nor the dull gray that Hira had scared them with tales about. The sky was awash with pink, purple, and gold colors. 

“It looks as though sleeping in the same bed as Allura has restored Lotor to perfect health,” Coran commented. Lotor gave an emphatic nod. Hira huffed and stormed out of the room.

“Thank you, Coran,” said Allura. “But I am still worried. We won’t get to stay together like this very often…”

“Who says your shifts can’t overlap?” Coran said. He gestured to the painted display of light outside the window. “If this is what happens, I see nothing wrong with that.”

Lotor laced his fingers with Allura’s, and leaned his head on her shoulder. “Neither do we,” he said.

~

As Allura’s powers grew stronger, she was able to stay awake later into the day, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t exhausted when she returned from her shift. The burden lifted off of her shoulders when she leaned over the bed and saw Lotor, looking serene in his sleep. The last rays of the golden sun shimmered over his regal cheekbones and his long, pearly hair that was fanned out across the pillow. He rested on his side, his arms stretched out in front of him and his hands curled around nothing, yearning for her.

Gently, so as not to wake him, Allura lifted the covers and climbed onto the bed. Once she settled in under the sheets, she shifted her body so that she was nestled between Lotor’s arms. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

Calmness overtook her, and she had to fight to keep her eyelids from drooping. She liked to watch him sleep, and indulge in pillow talk when he woke up. How she wished that she could doze off like this and still wake up in his arms, but she knew that their time together was fleeting. 

Lotor let out a soft grunt, and his eyelashes fluttered while he slowly opened his eyes. “Mm… Is it dusk already?” he groaned. “I was having a wonderful dream.”

“What about?” Allura asked, brushing her fingers along his cheek. 

“You,” Lotor said, his eyelids half open and his lips curved in a drowsy smile. “But now that you’re here I don’t mind being woken up as much.”

Allura brushed her lips against Lotor’s. The feather-light touch brought Lotor chasing after her with his eyes closed, and she rewarded him with a deeper kiss. 

She felt the mattress sink underneath her as he shifted his weight to crawl out of bed. “Stay,” Allura pleaded, wrapping her arms around Lotor’s waist, holding him captive. She wasn’t going to let him leave so soon without putting up a fight. “At least until I fall asleep.”

A low, warm laugh rose from Lotor’s throat. “Gladly, my dear,” he said. He leaned close to her and pressed his forehead against hers. His fingers glided lightly up and down her back in mesmerizing patterns. Lulled by the soft touch, she felt her eyelids growing heavy again, though she forced them open every now and then to look into Lotor’s eyes.

“Let yourself rest. I will be here when you wake up,” Lotor assured her.

“I wish sunset lasted all night,” Allura murmured.

“As do I,” Lotor replied. “I promise I’ll be back. Sleep well.” Lotor left her with one last kiss on the lips, then another on her forehead, before he climbed out of the bed.

Outside the window, the sun sank below the horizon. Every star that appeared in the sky was like another weight upon her eyelids. At the same moment the last sliver of the sun disappeared, Allura’s eyes slipped shut.


End file.
